A 670 vs 970 comparison. Brace yourself, spectacular results

[RockOla 233]

Hi all

 

Based on early benchmarks, power consumption & noise reports, I decided to upgrade my good not-so-old 670 for a brand news MSI 970 Gaming.

 

I now flightsim for more than 15 years, and I can say this is the first time an hardware upgrade satisfies me this way.

 

I took the opportunity to switch my GPU (all my other hardware remaining the same) to show you the FPS boost in 3 different situations.

 

Conditions :

 

- nvinspector with only sparse grid multisample x8

- no other background app running appart Speedfan

- each picture take without AA and with 8x AA set in P3D (so 8SGSAA with nv inspector transparency multisampling)

 

Results

 

 

Quick conclusions

 

- not a huge difference when cavok or clear conditions

- significant difference when cloudy / overcast

- huge boost when AA enabled, especially under demanding conditions (traffic / clouds / urban area)

 

And I did not mention the temperature never reaching 70°C (158°F) in a ITX case (Node 304), the fan only starting spinning past 60°C (140°F), and remaining near-silent even at max t°.

 

Images being worth a thousand words, here are the results.

 

670 without AA

 

970 without AA

 

670 with AA

 

970 with AA

 

670 without AA

 

970 without AA

 

670 with AA

 

970 with AA

 

670 without AA

 

970 without AA

 

670 with AA

 

970 with AA

[GHarrall 494]

Why are you setting 8xSGSAA ?

 

Thats just a massive overkill

[RockOla 233]

Just to stress the GPU and show how beefy the 970 is. Never under 40 FPS with 8xSGSAA ensures 50FPS+ with 4xSGSAA in most of the cases.

 

But let's forget 2x, 4x, 8x etc. These new Maxwell GTX are simply very promising and more than well performing with P3D 2.3

[pmanhart 176]

Excellent results! I planned on getting a 970 at launch but I'm going to wait for the holiday bundles that come packed with some game codes that I usually sell online after purchase.

 

Though, with these results I might not be able to wait...

[Novation 534]

Thanks for posting these results, you must be very happy?... I'm seriously thinking about getting a 970 based on all I'm reading about them.

 

These cards seem to offer unrivalled bang for buck and some great overclocking potential to boot.

[RockOla 233]

Happy, yes, but not only for the raw figures. As a simmers point of view, this is the first time I can fly with both HQ AA and such smoothness. Forget tweaking your cfg, struggling with nv inspector settings. Over the past 2 hours, I just flew.

[fakeflyer737 991]

Why are you setting 8xSGSAA ?

 

Thats just a massive overkill

 

 

Not for me it isn't 8xsgsaa makes FSX (p3d) look solid, you get literally no shimmering, its amazing. I think I'm going to get a 970.

[PWJT8D 446]

Thanks for posting this! It seems you are very happy with how this card is performing in P3D. I'm upgrading from a 680 to a 980 (won't arrive until 9/26) but I'm being very optimistic it will greatly improve my P3D experience. I plan to do a clean install of P3D once the new card is in so I can start fresh and not with my mucked up tampered and tweaked with version.

[z06z33 763]

Wonder what an upgrade from a 770 would be like?

[fakeflyer737 991]

I have a 680, so I'm hoping to see a difference, who knows.

[Appliance 51]

RockOla many thanks for your contribution but could I enquire what texture resolution you are running at eg. 1024, 2048, 4096 in Image & Texture Quality section of Options\Settings\Display\Graphics.

 

Very few members give this specification when testing/reviewing yet it is quite an important factor in assessing outcomes.

 

Many thanks.

[Anxu00 176]

I have a 680, so I'm hoping to see a difference, who knows.

Please report your result once the card arrives.  Thanks

 

to OP, what resolution is your monitor set at?  And thanks for sharing.

[gpf3m 41]

I too ponder what an upgrade from a GTX770 to a GTX970 would harvest

[ryanbatc 12,775]

lol I'm still on a GTX 570.... single mon 1920x1080 (well technically two monitors but FSX/P3D only runs on 1)

[Kuragiman 227]

Whelp that settles it.  I am going for it though I think I am going to go deep pockets and snag two 980's and SLI them up.  It will help in my other games and when P3D goes SLI I will probably die a happy pilot.